David Douglas, East Hampton High School’s vocal director, sees next month’s trip to Italy as a potential life-changer for the more than two dozen students who sing with Camerata, the school’s mixed choral group.

While in Rome, the group will perform during a Saturday evening mass at St. Peter’s Basilica on the eve of Holy Week, in addition to two separate concerts in Lucca and Venice.

All told, the nine-day trip costs $4,000 for each student — and that’s not including meals. Following months of creative fund-raising — from a pasta dinner to a silent auction to a tag sale to a raffle for an all-expenses paid trip to Paris — the group will hold its final fund-raiser this coming weekend. This one, a concert on Sunday at 4 p.m. at Most Holy Trinity Church in East Hampton, will give audiences a preview of what’s to come in Italy. Admission is free, but donations will be gladly accepted, Mr. Douglas said.

Despite raising around $40,000 collectively since the start of the school year, after parent contributions most of the 27 students must still come up with around $1,000 to help offset costs.

The Greater East Hampton Education Foundation, the Clamshell Foundation, the East Hampton Rotary Club, and the Kiwanis Club of East Hampton have made donations. The school district will cover the cost of transportation to and from the airport.

Though Mr. Douglas has taught at East Hampton High School for 18 years, this will be his first trip abroad with students. Four other chaperones are also accompanying the group. Once in Italy, they will travel by bus, led by a tour company.

“I’m excited. It’s a nice group of kids and I have complete confidence in their conduct,” Mr. Douglas said Tuesday.

Camerata comprises 29 students in 10th through 12th grades. Last fall, more than 60 auditioned. Mr. Douglas explained that Camerata takes its name from a group of 16th-century musicians and intellectuals in Florence who hoped to reclaim the lost power of music. Many, but not all, of the group’s arrangements are sung a capella, with the group performing everything from medieval to popular music.

A year ago, Mr. Douglas began contemplating that such a trip might be possible. “This seemed like a good group, both musically and personally, and also for social reasons,” he explained. “They’ve just come together really nicely.”

Josh LeClerc, an 18-year-old senior, has sung with Camerata since his sophomore year. Monday rehearsals are a highlight of each week, he said.

“I love the music we do and I think we have a great sense of connection as a group,” said Josh, who has never traveled to Italy. Though his nerves have yet to kick in, he’s particularly excited to discover Italian culture and tour historic buildings.

Another member of the group, Daisy Kelly, also an 18-year-old senior, has sung with Camerata for the past two years. She described the group as a close-knit family, where talent is revered and each member is made to feel unique.

“The moments where we’re all singing one song, it literally gives me goose bumps,” said Daisy.

When thinking ahead to Italy, she is most excited by the opportunity to sing inside St. Peter’s Basilica — an opportunity she realizes is not likely to come around again.

“Being in an environment like that, even if you’re not religious, there’s such a strong spiritual vibe and feeling,” said Daisy. “Being somewhere that beautiful, it can just change your life.”

At the Y

Registration for spring sessions of the Y.M.C.A. East Hampton RECenter’s swim classes for kids will start on Monday, with classes scheduled to begin the week of April 21.

Garden of Imagination

Children will pay a visit to the Garden of Imagination during an art program at the East Hampton Library on Saturday with Joyce Raimondo. Ms. Raimondo will lead kids 4 and older as they use tissue paper and other items to create garden-inspired works of art. Kids 4 to 6 have been invited to a bunny story and craft time at the library next Thursday from 4 to 5 p.m. Advance registration has been requested for all programs.

Study of Microbes

On Sunday at the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton, Lindsay Rohrbach will head up a study of microbes for children 8 to 11. The program, which will start at 10 a.m., will touch on how ubiquitous micro-organisms help recycle waste and make food. Advance sign-up is required for all museum programs.

The Earth and You

Children can listen to a reading of Frank Asch’s “The Earth and I” during the Children’s Museum of the East End’s Pizza and Pajama Night tomorrow at 6 in Bridgehampton. After the story, they will play in the museum and make sun catchers from recycled bottles and tissue paper. The cost, including admission and pizza, is $10. Members get in free.

Ravioli will be on the menu Saturday from 10 to 11:30 a.m. during a pasta-making workshop for 6 to 10-year-olds. The cost is $12 in addition to the museum entrance fee of $10.

With egg-shaped devices in hand, a group of 11 fourth graders at John M. Marshall Elementary School recently sat through a social studies lesson about New York State history.

But before the formal lesson could begin, Jeff Thompson, one of their two teachers, administered a quick pre-quiz to assess what they knew already.

“Why did the British pass the Navigation Acts?” he read aloud from a digitized whiteboard at the front of the room known as the Promethean board.

He then read through the possible answers:

“A. To make it easier to sail across the Atlantic Ocean.”

“B. To allow them to attack Spanish, French, and Dutch ships trying to trade with its colony.”

“C. To help ships navigate New York Harbor.”

“D. To allow Spanish, French, and Dutch ships to trade with the British colony.”

But rather than raising their hands to call out the answer, students instead plugged their responses into the orange-and grey handheld devices. These student response systems, called ActiVote, encourage whole-class participation while helping to administer periodic assessments.

Currently, the devices are being used in two fifth-grade classrooms and three fourth-grade rooms, with a rollout to additional grades coming in September.

Across the East Hampton School District, despite the need for $1 million in cuts, school board members are weighing potential increases to the technology inventory. During a budget workshop last month, the board seemed to lean toward purchasing 180 more Chromebooks, which would allow for 60 devices at each of the district’s three schools. Each Chromebook costs $330, for a total investment of nearly $60,000.

An additional concern in future years are online assessments, which the state plans to require of students in grades 3 to 8. These assessments were to have started by the 2015-16 school year, but were recently put on hold following widespread difficulties in implementing the so-called Common Core standards. Online assessments remain an inevitability, however, and districts must invest accordingly.

During the John Marshall quiz, each response flashed on the right of the whiteboard screen, with an anonymous configuration of letters and numbers assigned to each student. Mr. Thompson revealed later in the lesson that about one-third of the class had selected B, the correct answer.

Mr. Thompson, who is in his 10th year at John Marshall, discovered the devices last September in the back of a supply cabinet, where they lay gathering dust. Their utility quickly became evident.

“We get immediate feedback,” he said. “Right away, you can see who needs support. And if the whole class is struggling with a concept, you can hit the brakes and re-teach the whole group.”

Beth Doyle, John Marshall’s principal, is a convert. “They provide this great in-the-moment feedback so they can adjust their lesson right then and there and not move on until their students have mastered it,” said Ms. Doyle. “If a couple of kids didn’t get it, the teachers can pull them aside and do a quick review.”

For Mr. Thompson and his co-teacher, Erin Abran, who co-teaches the “inclusion” class, one of ActiVote’s most useful features is its anonymity. A handful of the children are classified as special education.

“The kids don’t know who answered what,” said Ms. Abran.

 The devices are used for other subjects besides social studies, among them math and science. “There’s 100-percent participation, and you can’t hide. It forces them to take risks,” she said.

The students seem equally enamored.

“I don’t have to raise my hand,” said Stacy Pizarro, 10. “I just press a button.”

“It’s a lot easier to just press a button and get it over with,” said Madeleine Brown, 9. “It’s fun and if you got it wrong, you also don’t have to erase.”

“It’s quick and fast and I don’t get bored,” said Joshua Vazquez, 10.

Amy Falkenhan said she hasn’t touched a piece of chalk since she began teaching four years ago.

“I used to have to collect papers, grade them, and get it back to them,” said Ms. Falkenhan, who teaches fourth grade. “Now, I can see who’s having trouble right away.” After conducting an assessment, she pulls aside small groups of students still having problems for a quick review. “They know if they get it wrong they will get support that same day.”

Since using ActiVote, said Ms. Falkenhan, she sees students engaged from the minute a lesson starts to when it ends, knowing they can be wrong without being laughed at. She called them digital natives, a generation of young people coming of age during an era when technology is omnipresent.

“Everything kids do these days involves electronics,” she said. “When they come into the classroom, you have to be able to teach with what they’re using in their everyday lives. If I went up to the front of the room with a piece of chalk, I guarantee you I would lose almost all of them.”

Following months of debate and a line-by-line dissection of next years budget, the East Hampton School Board has decided to go above the state-mandated 2 percent cap on tax levy increases.

The proposed budget represents a 2.43 percent increase in the tax levy. As such, it requires the approval of 60 percent of voters in order to pass.

The 2013 consumer price index is 1.46 percent, which would only have allowed the district to add $255,000 to the budget. The cap allows school districts to increase their budgets by either 2 percent or the consumer price index — whichever is lower.

“We took away everything possible. There’s no fluff left in the budget,” said Richard Burns, the district superintendent, at Tuesday night’s board meeting. He said the cuts that would have had to accompany a 1.46 percent increase in this year’s $64.2 million budget simply would not have been “enough to move forward with our district.”

All told, the district sliced over $1 million from next year’s preliminary  budget.

“There was really no place left to go,” said Patricia Hope, the school board president. This is the third consecutive year that East Hampton has made significant reductions in its annual budget. “Every department took a hit, every school took a hit, every grade level took a hit.”

Among the cuts, the district eliminated seven paraprofessional positions and reduced an elementary school guidance counselor’s position to part time, saving $316,000 altogether. Also cut were items related to materials, supplies, equipment, field trips, and professional conferences.

“We didn’t make the decision lightly,” said Jackie Lowey, a board member. “We cut things we didn’t want to cut. It was painful.”

While no one openly questioned the increase in the tax cap, the reduction in hours in the guidance counselor position at John M. Marshall Elementary School was met with some hostility.

 Bridget Sokolowski currently holds the position. Besides her duties as a counselor, she also runs a program for children of divorced families and helps with attendance, scheduling, and state testing for students in grades 3 to 5. Come September, she will work a three-day week.

Candace Stafford, who runs the high school’s guidance department, read from a lengthy letter urging that the board reconsider its decision.

Katrina Foster, pastor of St. Michael?s Lutheran Church in Amagansett, agreed, saying it was “much easier and far less expensive to raise a whole child than to try and fix a broken adult.”

“What we do to the least and last among us is what matters the most,” said Ms. Foster. “It’s easiest to try and cut the budget for those least likely to organize and stand up for themselves.”

Arthur Goldman, a teacher at the high school and co-president of the East Hampton Teachers Association, also spoke in favor of keeping Ms. Sokolowski as a full-time employee.

In a follow-up conversation yesterday, Ms. Hope emphasized that John Marshall would continue to staff a full-time psychologist and a full-time social worker. While the one guidance counselor for the 600 children at the school would be reduced to part time, Ms. Hope said that should the need for increased personnel arise, guidance counselors at either East Hampton Middle School or East Hampton High School could easily be reassigned. Currently, the high school has six guidance counselors, while the middle school has one.

 “We would never leave the children hanging in times of crisis or in times of need,” said Ms. Hope. “We are well-staffed.”

A retired science teacher, she said the school budget was last voted down in the spring of 1978, when a contingency budget was adopted and anything extra eliminated. Come May, if 60 percent of district voters do not approve the budget, the school board can either submit it again or present a revised budget that is closer to the cap, or under.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, Lisa Benincasa, who heads the science department at East Hampton High School, told the board that four students recently placed at the semifinals of the Long Island Science and Engineering Fair. Peter Davis and Matthew Tyler Menold received a third-place award for their work in the field of microbiology. Alexander Osborne received honorable mention for his work in energy and transportation, and Lindsey Stevens won honorable mention for her work in cellular and molecular biology.

The board also listened to a presentation from a group of visiting Japanese exchange students. Led by James Stewart, a teacher at the high school, the group has been here for the past three weeks, staying with local host families. Mr. Stewart said he hoped the program, now in its 36th year, will  result in a group of East Hampton students traveling to Japan next year.

Later in the meeting the board appointed Angel Farez to the position of part-time bus driver for a probationary period of 26 weeks. Beginning April 3, Mr. Farez will be paid an annual salary of $15,934. And, the board accepted the resignation of R.J. Etzel, head coach of the varsity baseball team.

The next budget workshop will be held on Tuesday night from 6 to 8 p.m. The annual budget vote will take place on May 20. Besides establishing a crisis service during phase one, a second phase would expand mental health services by hiring additional social workers and community health workers. The second phase would also include a mobile unit capable of going wherever there is urgent need. A third phase would bring Stony Brook psychiatrists to Southampton Hospital as part of an expanded residency program.

During the East Hampton School District’s budget talks in recent weeks, Adam Fine, the high school principal, had asked the school board for a $30,000 increase for mental health services. Faced with a state-imposed 2-percent tax cap and more than $1 million in budget cuts, however, increases of this nature weree far from guaranteed. Though numbers are still being finalized, Mr. Fine is hopeful at least $5,000 will come through. “Something will be allocated, but not the $30,000, Patricia Hope, the school board president, said on Wednesday.

Mr. Fine, who spearheaded the effort to increase mental health services here, first meeting with Mr. Thiele last summer, said he was very pleased with the state promise of $150,000. “This is the beginning of a long process to secure adequate funding and services for our at-risk students. I look forward to continuing the mental health dialogue with our committed local elected officials,” he said.

Further planning among those who comprised the group that came up with the request made to the state is underway. “Now that we have the state money, we will bring all of the members of the task force back together and plan next steps, including how to match funds and implement the proposal as we go forward,” Mr. Thiele said in a press release. Mr. LaValle joined his colleague in the release, calling the state allocation “a crucial step in working toward necessary solutions for this under-served area.” The legislators also noted this week that $500,000 had been approved for Lyme disease and tick borne illness prevention and treatment.

“Cinderella” at Guild Hall

The Hampton Ballet Theatre School will present Prokofiev’s “Cinderella” tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday at Guild Hall in East Hampton. The production is choreographed by the school’s director, Sara Jo Strickland, and features costume design by Yuka Silvera and lighting design by Sebastian Paczynski. Nick Peregrino of Philadelphia’s Ballet Fleming will be the guest artist, dancing the role of the prince. Performances are at 7 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday, with matinees Saturday at 1 and Sunday at 2. Advance tickets cost $25 for adults and $20 for children under 12, and can be purchased at hamptonballethteatreschool.com or by calling 888-933-4287. Tickets the day of the performances are $5 more.

One Lump or Two?

The Children’s Museum of the East End in Bridgehampton will hold its Mad Hatter Egg Hunt on Saturday from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Children will decorate their own hats, then search inside and out for eggs filled with healthy treats donated by Annie’s Homegrown — a bonus for parents trying to avoid the inevitable sugar overload. There is a $10 entry fee. Members get in free.

Sunday will bring Mother Earth stories with Sima, a free program from 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

During the school break next week, CMEE will offer morning drop-off programs for kids ages 3 to 6 each day from 9:30 to noon. Projects on tap include mini herb gardens on Tuesday, paper bag costumes, masks, and hats Wednesday, tin can wind chimes next Thursday, and weaving with recycled materials on Friday, April 18. The cost is $55 per day or $45 for members. The program will include group games, movement activities, and snack time. Advance registration is required.

Get Your Egg On

Children can also search out eggs at the Hampton Library in Bridgehampton on Saturday. The festivities get going with a story time at 10 a.m. The hunt follows in the library’s backyard. In case of rain it will be held on Saturday, April 19.

Saturday is Drop Everything and Read Day, and children 4 and older have been invited to share favorite books or hear about others’ favorites at 3 p.m.

Kids 4 and older can enjoy a story, tea, and treats on Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

The library will kick off the school vacation week with a pajama party for the whole family on Monday at 6:30 p.m., with games, movies, snacks, and dancing. Pajamas optional.

Kids 8 to 12 can make baby birds’ nest cupcakes on Tuesday at 3 p.m. Book vases and paper flowers will be created during a workshop for teens next Thursday at noon.

Keepsaking, Bookmaking

A story about keepsakes and curios will be followed by a jar and lid magnet-making session at the Amagansett Library on Saturday. The free family program starts at 3:30 p.m. On Sunday, third through sixth graders can learn to make their own books during a workshop at 1:30 p.m. Reservations have been requested for each of the programs.

World Art Day

Joyce Raimondo will help children 4 and older celebrate World Art Day on Tuesday at 4 p.m. at the East Hampton Library. After an “imaginary trip around the globe,” participants will make an adventure collage. The same age group will fashion bunny Peeps wreaths on Wednesday at 4 p.m. and candles next Thursday from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m. Advance registration is required, and those under 7 must be accompanied by an adult.

Spring Break Art Workshops

Impressionism, sculpture, cityscapes, portrait drawing, and landscape painting are on the schedule during the Parrish Art Museum’s spring vacation workshops Monday through Friday, April 18, in Water Mill. Sessions for 4 to 6-year-olds run from 10 a.m. to noon; those for kids 7 and older run from 1 to 3 p.m. The cost is $40 per session or $30 for museum members. Registration for single sessions can be done through the museum’s website, parrishart.org. Registration for multiple sessions is by phone.

For Young Writers

Space is still available in the Young Artists and Writers Project’s spring break writing workshops for teens, offered Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The workshop is sponsored by Stony Brook Southampton’s M.F.A. program and is held at the college. Student writers will develop fiction, poetry, and personal essays during the sessions, with the goal of completing a piece of writing by week’s end. The cost is $525 for the week. Some partial scholarships may be available. Applications can be found online at stonybrook.edu/yawp.

All About Baby Animals

Baby animals will be the focus of a program for kids 3 to 5 at the South Fork Natural History Museum in Bridgehampton on Saturday. Participants will learn the names and habits of a number of different species. The program starts at 2 p.m. Reservations are required.

Jermain’s Jammin’

At the John Jermain Memorial Library in Sag Harbor, kids can play with Play-Doh, make tissue paper eggs, play with Barbies, and delve into the world of Minecraft. The Play-Doh session is for kids 4 to 8 and runs from 10:30 to 11:15 a.m. on Saturday. The same age group is the target for the tissue paper egg program Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Barbie Club on Tuesday from 10:30 to 11:15 a.m. is for kids 3 to 9. A Minecraft camp for kids 6 and older will have two sessions — one for those with PCs on Wednesday from 10:30 a.m. to noon, and one for those with iPads on Friday, April 18, at the same time. Reservations have been requested for most programs.

In a given month, Liz Dobbs oversees 20,000 meals — a combination of breakfast, lunch, and dinner — for the 530 students enrolled at the Ross School.

Recently, the Daily Meal, a culinary website, named Ross’s among the top 10 school lunches in the country. Ranked at number four, the school received particular recognition for its locally sourced and diverse menu.

“Early on, Mrs. Ross was a pioneer in the school food movement, believing that if students ate well they learned better,” said Ms. Dobbs, referring to Courtney Ross, the school’s founder.

Ms. Dobbs, who has directed the food program for seven years, oversees 28 part-time and full-time employees. She said the staff generally eschews frozen food, preferring instead to make everything from scratch, be it homemade stocks, sauces, dressings, soups, or desserts.

As the school’s boarding student population has risen in recent years, at present comprising about 250 students, Ms. Dobbs now oversees a global kitchen that caters to tastes from more than 25 countries. For instance, while brown rice is served during lunchtime, white rice is offered at dinnertime. Ms. Dobbs described it as “comfort food” for students who are halfway around the world from their families.

When planning more than 1,200 meals each day (with hot lunches cooked at the Upper School in East Hampton and delivered to the Lower School in Bridgehampton), Ms. Dobbs tries to keep it “nutritious and wholesome and flavorful and interesting,” with an eye toward new and inventive dishes.

“By this time of the year, the students are bored with our menus,” said Ms. Dobbs, noting that Monday’s menu included macaroni and cheese, a consistent crowd-pleaser. Meatballs and pasta also top the list. “Complacency doesn’t work in food.”

Still, she is the first to concede that young palates can be picky, though peer pressure generally works in her favor. “If a friend is eating kale and tofu every day, they’ll probably try it — eventually,” she said.

—

Note: An earlier version of this story misidentified Ms. Dobbs as the designer of the Ross food program. Its founder was Ann Cooper.

On Tuesday night, following months of intense debate, the East Hampton School Board convened its last line-by-line budget workshop of the 2014-15  school year. Isabel Madison, the district’s assistant superintendent for business, led the presentation of the final budget numbers.

In recent weeks the board decided to go above the state-mandated 2 percent cap on increases in the tax levy (the amount of the budget raised by property taxes). The proposed $47,507,169 levy represents a 2.43-percent increase over last year. As such, it will require the approval of 60 percent of voters in order The total proposed budget is up by 1.3 percent, or around $800,000, over last year’s $64.2 million.

The cap allows school districts to increase their budgets by either 2 percent or the consumer price index, whichever is lower. The 2013 C.P.I. is 1.46 percent, which would have allowed the district to add only $255,000 to the budget.

“Budget to budget, tax rate to tax rate, it’s an increase of 1.89 percent,” said Ms. Madison. The tax rate per $100 of assessed value is currently $51, she said. For example, then, a house with a median assessed value of $6,000 would see it increase to $56.67, or around $5 more a month.

Jackie Lowey, a board member, urged that a levy-to-levy comparison, not budget-to-budget, be made. “Budget to budget, it’s only up 1.3 percent. It’s significant,” urged Ms. Lowey. “It’s also significant because in terms of the rebate that people think they’re getting in terms of a tax credit, it’s about $50 dollars a year at most. People are under the impression that we’re stopping them from getting a big tax rebate.”

Her reference was to a recent plan unveiled by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, giving residents in districts that stay within the cap a rebate check equal to the tax increase imposed by their new budget. Should voters okay a budget that pierces the cap, they would receive no rebate.

Earlier in the long meeting, board members listened to an appeal from Maureen Wikane and Laura Anker of the Eleanor Whitmore Early Learning Center, who hope to expand its current half-day pre-K program into a full-day one. Ms. Wikane is the center’s director and Ms. Anker is vice chairwoman of its board of directors.

“One of our concerns is that because it’s only a two-and-a-half-hour program, a lot of parents just aren’t sending their children,” said Ms. Anker, after acknowledging that the school board was under extreme pressure given a year of excruciating budget cuts. “We’re losing kids, some of whom need it the most.”

The two women supplied a proposed budget for 2014-15. For 52 children, the current half-day program costs the district $460,089. A full-day program next  year would run $645,560. The half-day program costs $8,186 per child; the full-day program would cost $12,627.

“We tried to look at every way that we could cut so that a full day would by all means not be double a half-day,” urged Ms. Anker, noting that Amagansett, Bridgehampton, and Montauk all offer free full-day pre-K programs.

Board members, however, balked at the increased costs, suggesting instead that a committee be formed to explore the possibility of expanding the program in future.

“These costs are higher than neighboring districts,” said Ms. Lowey. “My question is, what kind of exercises have you done internally to drill down on the costs?”

Christina DeSanti, another board member, said that every department in the district had been forced to cut between 10 and 15 percent, and that “we need to get that per-pupil number down.” Also, citing the board’s $1 million in cuts to date, she warned that the district faced another $400,000 slash should the budget not pass.

 “Every one of us buys into the value of full-day versus half-day, just as a full day of kindergarten is more effective than a half day of kindergarten,” said Patricia Hope, the board president.

 “We’ve tortured every department in this district that’s come before us,” said J.P. Foster, a board member, with a half-smile. “We have to do the same to you.”

Following next week’s school recess, the board will meet on April 22 at 6:30 p.m., when it is expected to adopt the budget. Nominating petitions for school board candidates are due the day before. A budget hearing is planned for May 6 at 7:30 p.m., and the annual budget vote and election of board members will take place on May 20, from 2 to 9 p.m.

The stresses of budget season came to the fore this week as East Hampton School Board members, facing the need to make cuts for the third year in a row, discussed a host of possibilities, including the elimination of fall cheerleading and seventh and eighth-grade boys and girls tennis.   

“It’s a difficult task,” said Richard Burns, the superintendent. The board has met at least once a week since the start of the year, doing line-by-line dissections in sessions that can last between four and five hours.

With the state’s tax-levy cap holding the increase at 1.46 percent, Mr. Burns said doing so would allow an increase of only $255,000 in the whole budget for the 2014-15 school year. All told, the district is faced with eliminating between $1 million and $1.5 million in spending.

“At the end of every strand, of everything we dig into, there are people at the other end who are affected. It’s an extraordinarily difficult thing to do,” Pat Hope, the school board president and a retired East Hampton High School science teacher said later in an interview.  During Tuesday’s board meeting she was nearly moved to tears.

The board’s next full meeting is on April 1 at 6:30 p.m. “At that point, we’ll be making the decision to stay at the cap or go over the cap. Your help is so important,” Ms. Hope said. “The more information and feedback we get, we appreciate it,” she said. “I had expected the PTA to be throwing tomatoes at us. Instead, they offered to help and fund raise. It’s beyond the pale.”

On Monday night during a budget work session that lasted more than three hours, the board faced hard decisions about sports. Joe Vas, the athletic director,  made a presentation with difficult news, even though his department budget shows a decrease for next year. He has proposed spending $842,195, down $25,000 from this year.

Of the East Hampton Middle School’s 249 students, 71 percent participate in at least one sport, he said. And at East Hampton High School half the 868 students participate in at least one sport. The elimination of varsity football would result in a $30,000 savings, he said, although the junior varsity and middle school programs would remain.

 Along with varsity football, Mr. Vas said that fall cheerleading would be discontinued, with 12 cheerleaders likely to be impacted. Though Jackie Lowey, a board member, advocated that cheerleading be viewed and budgeted as its own sport and competitive activity, Mr. Vas said East Hampton’s cheerleaders only wanted to cheer at football games.

Then at Tuesday’s board meeting, Board members considered the possible elimination of seventh and eighth-grade boys and girls tennis. “The district is changing and sports are changing,” said Ms. Lowey, reporting that no girls played tennis this year. Eliminating the teams would result in a $10,000 savings. Mr. Vas later said “one or two kids had come out” in the last two years and added that the high school teams would remain intact.

Mr. Vas also proposed the addition of a strength and conditioning class that would meet five days a week. The district now spends about $14,400 on a class that meets three days each week. He said it would help students develop a “competitive edge, put us on equal footing, and reduce injuries.”

Still, the need for cuts quickly came back into focus. “We’re about to cut a lot of other things and people’s salaries,” Ms. Lowey told Mr. Vas. “We have a lot of other priorities.”

“We want to see them have everything. They can’t have everything. What’s the priority?” Christina DeSanti, a board member, asked.

And following weeks of intense debate, the board finally approved a boys varsity lacrosse team trip to West Point to see an Army vs. Navy game on April 12. The district and the lacrosse program will split the cost of transportation, each paying $725. Two board members, Liz Pucci and Ms. Lowey, voted against it.

Awards and uniforms were also a target of possible cuts at Tuesday’s meeting, as was $450 allocated for Suffolk Zone, an annual student recognition dinner. Ms. DeSanti suggested eliminating fifth graders from the annual middle school dance competition, which would mean one less instructor and a $1,500 cut. In addition, board members weighed charging a nominal fee for the competition, and deemed $250 for helium and balloons unnecessary.

In addition to the presentation by Mr. Vas at Monday’s budget session, the board heard about necessary increases in transportation costs. Joseph Lipani, who oversees transportation for the district, presented a roughly $422,000 spending plan, which reflects a nearly 57-percent increase over last year’s $269,000. New equipment accounts for the bulk of the increase.

Since the start of this school year, the district has logged 1,939 hours for trips related to sports, daytime field trips, and extracurricular activities, Mr. Lipani said. Repairing aging buses also proved costly, he said. Mr. Lipani noted that some of the buses, last purchased in 2005-06, have accrued upwards of 100,000 miles. The board then agreed to buy a new wheelchair-accessible van at a cost of more than $77,000 and weighed buying a second, $60,000 van.

In other action at Tuesday’s meeting, the board recognized Carly Grossman, East Hampton High School’s valedictorian, and Mary Pizzo, its salutatorian. Members also voted to approve an employment change for Annette Zaino, a school bus driver, from part-time to full-time, at an annual salary of $36,650.

At no cost to the district, members also voted to begin a pilot program with Jigsaw Meeting, a distance-learning platform, from March 11 to June 30 to explore services related to its virtual classroom software program.

Board members announced that the John M. Marshall Elementary School principal, Beth Doyle, has given birth to a daughter, who has been named Olive Frances. During her maternity leave, Robert Tymann, the district’s assistant superintendent, is assuming principal duties.

During the second opportunity for public comments on Tuesday, the president and vice president of East Hampton Middle School’s PTA, spoke about the hope of keeping the school’s graduation ceremony there. In recent weeks, with an eye toward saving money, board members had suggested consolidating the district’s various graduation ceremonies at the high school, counting up the cost of chairs, sound systems, and decorations at each of its three schools.

Deme Minskoff, the PTA president, pledged an annual $500 donation from the PTA, in addition to a donation of $500 from the school’s graduation committee.

The next budget workshop will be Tuesday from 6 to 8 p.m.

Prekindergarten enrollment for children in the East Hampton School District will be held next Thursday and Friday, April 4, at the Eleanor Whitmore Early Childhood Center.

To be eligible for the program, children must be 4 on or before Dec. 1. Parents or guardians will be asked for proof of the child’s age in the form of a birth certificate or passport, proof of residency in the district (a deed, lease, contract of sale, or tax bill), and complete immunization records.

The center, formerly the East Hampton Day Care Center, runs the East Hampton School District’s prekindergarten program.

The free half-day program is offered in a morning session from 8:30 to 11:15 and an afternoon session from 12:30 to 3:15. Extended day options are available for a fee. Children living in other school districts may attend the center’s pre-K program for a fee, as well.

Registration will be from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the center, which is on Gingerbread Lane Extension near the John M. Marshall Elementary School.

New at the Goat

After taking a Saturday off for its annual Bambini Ball fund-raiser last weekend, puppet shows will resume this week at the Goat on a Boat Puppet Theatre in Sag Harbor. A Couple of Puppets will debut a new show, “The Doubtful Sprout,” on Saturday at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.

Tickets are $12, or $10 for members, grandparents, and kids under 3. 

SoFo Explorations

Working with the South Fork Natural History Museum’s resident marine animals on Saturday, children 6 to 10 will learn about how sunlight acts when it travels through water and how animals in the ocean react to it.

The marine lab, led by Melanie Meade, is designed to supplement the state’s intermediate level science core curriculum for fifth through eighth graders. It will start at 10 a.m.

Also on Saturday, at the same time, Crystal Possehl will lead 5 to 7-year-olds on a backpack adventure to explore the Sagg Swamp. Participants will borrow a backpack stocked with magnifiers, binoculars, a compass, sample bottles, and a sketchpad to study and record their observations.

Enrollment in both programs is limited and advance registration is required.